OMG! Marbury V. Madison!!!!

Alexander Hamilton was a big fan of Jefferson, so with Hamilton's influence, Jefferson became president. This made Burr pretty mad so they decided to have a duel. Burr won and Hamilton was dead. This was later the premise of a "Got Milk" commercial.

Along with Jefferson as president, there was a new Chief Justice in town, this was John "I'll still be talked about long after I'm dead" Marshall. He was involved in a lot of precedent setting matters such as.....

MARBURY V. MADISON!


Ok...in a nutshell....

Marbury was appointed a position by Adams at pretty much the last minute. Incoming Secretary of State James Madison refused to let the appointment go through. They went to court...and Marshall ruled in favor of Madison. So why is this important? Maybe one of the most important court cases ever? [46]

The concept is Judicial Review. This gave the court the power to review acts of Congress and the President to see if they were constitutional or not.

Score one for the Judiciary Branch!



[46] EVER!

Alien and Sedition Acts

Then during Adam's presidency there were 2 Acts that took effect that sort of dances with some Constitutional violations. What sort of a dance? A JIG!



The Alien Act authorized the President to arrest and deport immigrants who criticized the federal government. You may scratch your head and wonder what happened to the First Amendment.

Yes...the right to free speech, well..don't worry about it.


The Sedition Act was also pretty redic. It was made a crime for citizens to publicly discredit the federal government [45]. When it was all said and done, 10 people were convicted of Sedition. THE CONSTITUTION ROCKS!!!

Eventually these Acts were overturned by the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Good job Virginia and Kentucky!

As it would turn out, these Acts and some taxes made Adams pretty unpopular. He lost the Election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson. But this election was like no other election before. It was a tie! Yes, a tie, with Aaron Burr. To decide the tie they played 3 rounds of paper, rock, scicssors, this of course, is a lie.




[45] I think pretty much everyone would be arrested for this...

XYZ

John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson in the 1796 election. Adams carried the northern states while Jefferson carried the south, it was the red and blue map before CNN was around!

Back then whoever did not win the presidency became the VP, which was Jefferson, and it was kind of awkward.


Soon Adams found himself face to face with a French crisis.

In 1794 the Jay Treaty was made. This treaty said the British would leave forts and America would pay pre-war debts to Britain. The French were not happy, they said it violated a Treaty they made with the U.S.. So the French started seizing U.S. Ships.

Adams sent some of his peeps to France to talk this out. This didn't end well. Some French officials known as just "X,Y, & Z" demanded $250,000 in bribes. Things were tense between the US and France, this event was known as the XYZ Affair [44].



[44] Not to be confused for "Hey, XYZ", which usually means your pants are unzipped...you looked didn't you?